


The Punchline

by Idratherliveinbooks



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-26 20:23:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5019160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idratherliveinbooks/pseuds/Idratherliveinbooks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU Ugly meet," we met because his brother punched me in the face." Cas is use to his brothers exuberance he can't say the for poor Dean Winchesters face.<br/>Bit of fluff</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Punchline

**Author's Note:**

> Fluff, a couple slurs. I adore AU's and found the ugly meets, challenge accepted.

Castiel Novak watches his brother Gabriel wave his hands around wildly talking excitedly about the bar he found in the next town over. He moves out of the reach of his brothers swinging arms and keeps walking; he hates having to shop for gifts and Meg Masters is a tough person to shop for. He rolls his eyes as his brother jumps on the fountain bench and walks around the huge circle still talking about the hot guys he had seen. He opens his mouth to tell his brother to stop walking backward around the fountain circle bench for the love of god! when Gabe loses his footing and falls off into one man and manages to punch his companion in the face. All three go down in a heap. Cas rushes over to his brother and the two men he took down. Gabe is apologizing and flirting with with the larger of the two and the smaller man has a bloody nose.

"Son of a bitch!" he swears as he checks his nose, Cas pulls the tissues out of his pocket and hands them over. The green-eyed man takes them with a grimace. His companion glances over at him and pushes Gabe away.

"Dean, you okay?" The man, Dean looks at him incredulously.

"He punched me in the face. Do I look okay?" His friend looks sheepish.

"Cas is a nurse," Gabe pipes up. Dean looks at Cas like he had forgotten he was there, which he probably had. Dean looks at Cas hard for a second and arches a brow.

"Well, is it broken, nurse?" He takes the tissues away from his nose and Cas runs his fingers over Dean's nose, Dean winces. Cas shakes his head.

"No, no break,Gabriel didn't hit you that hard." Cas is surprised with his words and at that his companion laughs and Dean reddens. He jumps to his feets quickly and offers Cas a hand. His friend does the same with Gabe. Gabriel keeps a hold of the man's hand while Dean drops Cas' like it burns.

"Gabriel Novak," he introduces himself to the taller man, "and my little brother Castiel" he says pointing at Cas. Cas wants to roll his eyes but doesn't as he can feel Dean boring a hole in his head. The man smiles.

"Sam Winchester and my older brother Dean," he says pointing at Dean. Dean looks annoyed, Sam glances at him. "Hell of a way to meet new people isn't it." Dean's scowl deepens. Sam pulls his hand away from Gabe and reaches out to Cas, "Nice to meet you." Surprised again he reaches back to Sam and echoes his sentiment. Sam looks pointedly at his annoyed brother and Dean sighs and reaches his hand out to Cas.

"Nice to me YOU, Castiel," he stresses as he shakes hands with Cas then Gabe. Cas hides a smile, Gabe usually has that effect on people. The four of them stand there awkwardly for a moment before Dean clears his throat and claps his hands. "Well, we should get going before Jo and Charlie come looking for us." He turns to leave.

" Are those your girlfriends?" Gabe asks quickly before falling in step with Sam who starts to follow Dean. "That's great actually we're shopping for one of Cas' friends and we have no idea what to get her. Maybe a woman is exactly what we need!" Gabe finishes excitedly. Cas trails after them mentally kicking himself for inviting his brother. Dean laughs loudly and Sam snickers. Cas and Gabe look at both men perplexed by their reaction to Gabe's words. Sam still chuckling looks at them grinning.

"No neither of them are our girlfriends, we are both single," Sam says smiling shyly at Gabe who grins brightly. "They won't be much help they are both tomboys, however you are welcome to come with us maybe six brains are better than two." Dean groans and Cas can't help himself either. Sam shoots Dean a look that screams don't be rude, so he sighs and glances at Cas.

" Come on, might as well stick with me, doubt you want to be their third wheel", he says pointing at their brothers. "Plus, Charlie is going to badger you both with questions and I can stave her off." He says grinning, he winks at Cas and when Cas blushes he grins wider. Cas frowns and walks ahead of the group, Dean quickly catches up and rubs his shoulders glancing back at his brother with affection. "My first day off in weeks and instead of staying home I come to the mall of all places with my brother and sister and best friend. Brats," he says fondly.

"How many siblings do you have?" Cas asks curiously.

"Sam is my biological brother," he explains "our parents died in a fire when we were small. Dad's best friend adopted us and later when he got remarried his wife already had a daughter-Jo. She was a baby though, so Bobby is the only dad she's ever known and we are her brothers." He glances at Cas and frowns. "I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. I normally don't babble."

"What do you do?" He asks quickly changing the subject. Dean smiles at the change of subject.

"I'm a mechanic, I work with Bobby, he owns Singers and Winchesters." Dean is looking ahead at two teenagers who come rushing over.

"Dean look at this shirt I made! Luke Skywalker saying 'Live long and prosper' do you realize the brains that are gonna melt?!" The redhead sounds positively gleeful at the idea and Dean looks amused. The two teens were wearing plaid flannels like Sam was he realized as he looks between the four.

"We all met here separately and I didn't get the memo to wear plaid," Dean explains sarcastically. The blonde rolls her eyes and the redhead shoves Dean away from Cas. She thrusts her hand into his face.

"I'm Charlie. I'm a nerd and a lesbian and I like long walks on the beach at sunset." The other three men snicker and Cas can't help but smile, he shakes her hand.

"I'm Castiel, I'm a nurse, a bookworm and binge-watching Project Runway." More laughter as Charlie grins wider.

"Did we just become best friends?" She says laughing. The other teenager Jo pushes Charlie.

"I'm Jo," she states staring at Cas, he shakes her hand smiling at her and Dean pushes both teens toward Sam who introduces them to Gabe.

"Project Runway, huh?" Dean says. Cas shrugs.

"First thing that popped in my mind."

"Sure, that's what they all say,"Dean teases. Cas can't help but smile at him. He hears his brother say his name and turns to look at the group watching his brother charm the girls the same way he charmed Sam. Dean reacted like most people exasperated with him. The four come to stand with Dean and Cas.

"What about a pair of Princess Leia earmuffs?" Charlie asks. Dean makes a noise in his throat like a see told you so as he looks at the teens.

"Are you friends on Facebook?" Jo asks. At the perplexed looks, "if you are friends we can see what she likes and go off of there." Cas wonders why he hadn't thought of that as he fishes out his phone and finds her. He hands it over to Jo and she and Charlie spend a few minutes looking at her pictures both making idle comments about what they see. Gabe peers over their shoulders as does Sam. Cas drops tiredly onto a bench and yawns. Dean sits down beside him.

"Long day?" He questions.

"I worked 16 hour shifts for the past two week and one 48 hour shift. I'm a little tired," he says with a sigh. He watches the four talk and glances at Dean who is studying him.

"Do you like it?" Dean questions.

"Yeah," Cas answer without hesitation. "I love going to work and helping people. I don't like the bad publicity that comes with being a male nurse or with people's opinion of nurses. Nurses really are the backbone of a hospital, I'd love to see a hospital run without us. He says vehemently. He glances at Dean who is just looking at him. "Sorry that whole thing with The View kind of made people lash out at nurses so we've been taking a lot of flack." Dean nods.

"I can imagine, apparently lots of people watch that show. Hey-" Whatever he was about to say gets cut off as Charlie rushes over with Cas' phone.

"A scarf." She says happily. "She wears lots of scarfs and the girls at school were talking about the sale at Forever 21 on them so it's a perfect idea." She says nodding along with herself. Even as the others come to join them she rushes off down the corridor, the other three follow just as quickly, Dean and Cas trudge behind them.

"I'm too young to be this tired," Cas groans.

"Me too," Dean agrees with a chuckle. Finally at Forever 21 they walk inside and make their way to the scarves after much debate they settle on a dark gray one with pastel flowers. Cas is certain people will never recover from seeing his brother try on multiple scarves at once and dance around the store singing to Katy Perry much to Charlie, Jo and Sam's amusement. He knows he will never forget and from the look on Dean's face neither will he. He checks out and holding the bag they exit the store, Sam glances out the window.

"It's getting dark, we should go, I promised to help mom in the Bar tonight." Sam says glancing around at everyone. Gabe looks disappointed, but Dean is nodding enthusiastically along, the girls frown. Cas can't help but feel disappointed like his brother but he is relieved at the idea of bed.

"I'd love to take your picture sometime, if I could have your number we could met up and I could show you my pictures. I've won awards." Gabe says looking at Sam, he smiles and rattles off his number while Charlie sniggers. Cas can see Dean rummaging in his pockets out of the corner of his eye. Dean brushes against Cas on his way towards his group.

"Let's go, already." He says impatiently herding them to the exit. "Nice to meet you" he calls over his shoulder. Charlie waves as Dean pushes them out the front door.

"Did you get his number?" Gabe asks, Cas glances at his brother.

"What?! No of course not." Gabe sighs at his brother.

"Come on, let's get you home and to bed like I promised." Cas brightens at the thought of bed and follows his brother to his car. Once home Cas go straight to his room and without changing or anything just flops onto his bed and passes it.

 

The Next afternoon Cas wakes up to a knock at his door, he staggers from bed and opens it to find his eldest brother standing there scowling at him. Zachariah brushes past him and into his apartment, Cas sighs and closes the door behind him.

"Are you just waking up?" Zachariah asks condescendingly. "It's the middle of the day, were you out all night with HIM?"

"Yesterday i did in fact see Gabe, we went to the mall." Cas says, his brother looks disgusted. Cas wants desperately to roll his eyes but he holds back the quicker he gets this weekly visit over with the sooner he can go back to do something anything else.

"How is work?" Zachariah asks inspecting Cas' apartment. He sticks his head in the fridge and freezer to make sure that he is eating what Zachariah calls appropriate food. He nods approvingly and listens to Cas vaguely. Cas use to being ignored rambles on about work adding in lines from movies and song lyrics. His brother nods along and turns to him. "Sounds like you are doing well, little brother. If you stayed away from HIM you'd be perfect." Zachariah could never forgive Gabe for liking women and men, or the fact that he chose art instead of picking a respectable career like medical like his three brothers. Cas gives his brother the appropriate responses and his brother finally leaves. Cas breathes a sigh of relief.  
He sticks his hands in his jacket pocket to empty them before he does laundry and finds a card. It was nice to met you, here is our business card and my personal number in case you want to hang out. Dean Cas stares at the card with disbelief for several seconds before he types the number quickly into his phone and hits save. He also sends Dean a quick text.

 _'Hey, just found your card in my pocket, very sneaky Mr. Winchester, verrry sneaky.'_  
Dean responds almost immediately  
_'I was hoping you'd find it before you washed the coat. Your brother seems like he's the kind of guy to make a big deal out of this so I passed you my number on the sly.'_  
_'Oh he would have, he would have completely blown this out of proportions. So did you get any sleep?'_  
_I just woke up. You?"_  
_"Me too, one of my brothers woke me up at the door for our weekly "visit.'_  
_'Weekly visit? That bad, huh? How many brothers do you have?'_  
_'Three older brothers, I'm the baby. You think Gabe is annoying you should meet my other brothers. They are awful, They hate Gabe because he is an artist, the rest of us are in the medical field.'_  
_'Damn sounds rough on both of you. Gabriel isn't that bad, he's just eccentric. Sam seems to really like that. He is going other there tonight for "art" he said. I really hope those are the only details I hear, I don't care in the slightest if Sam likes men and women I just don't want to hear about his sexcapades.'_  
_'Sexcapades? Is that even a real word?'_  
_'You just used it didn't you?'_  
_'Well yes but braddabradda is a word I just used, does that make it real?'_  
_'Haha Braddabradda? Really?'_  
_'Had to think on the fly, first thing that popped out. So is that a real word?'_  
_'Sure is, braddabradda is the noise your car makes when you drive over those weird bumps and the road that yank you off the road. Braddadbradda.'_  
_'...'_  
_'You still there? What are you doing for dinner tonight?'_  
_'I haven't decided yet, I haven’t bought groceries this week so it's pretty sparse.'_  
_'Get dressed, meet me at The Roadhouse off of route 65 in an hour, I'll buy you dinner pretty boy.'_  
_'See you in an hour.'_

Cas stares at his phone he wonders if this is a date, he showers and changes, he tosses his clothes into his washing machine and hits the road.  
He pulls up to The Roadhouse half an hour later and studies it. With as many times as he has driven to Sioux Falls he has never noticed this place. He steps out of his '78 Lincoln and glances up when a black Impala pulls up next to him. Dean hops out and smiles at him.

"Great timing, I'm starving, nice car, Ellen makes the best food in the world and the beer is always great." Dean says grabbing Cas' elbow and steering him inside, inside the bar Cas can see a older woman with dark hair glance at Dean, she smiles.

"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. I haven't seen you in ages boy." She says as they approach the counter slipping past the people milling around. Dean smiles and leans across the bar to kiss her cheek, she kisses him back with affection. She turns toward Cas and offers a hand, "Ellen Harville-Singer." She says, Cas takes her hand, "nice to meet you."

"Castiel Novak, nice to meet you as well Mrs. Singer," Dean snickers and Ellen smiles wider. She hits Dean lightly in the arm.

"You can call me Ellen, Castiel. Nice to know Dean can be around people with manners," she emphasis staring at her him, Dean blanches.

"Mom, come on we're friends, I just wanted him to try your food." He says lowly, Ellen raises a brow but says nothing. Dean turns to Cas, "let’s go, booth okay with you?" Cas nods and Dean leads them to a booth near the back wall close enough to the pool tables so they can play if they want but not so close they have to shout to be heard. Cas glances over his shoulder at Ellen who is studying her son, seeing Cas looking at her she smiles and turns to disappear in the kitchen. "Hey, hello?" Cas glances back at Dean who is waving a menu in his face, "hungry?" Cas takes the menu and both men browse the menu. Jo walks over to the table wearing an apron.

"Hey Dean, Castiel, what can I get y'all?" Dean and Jo look at Cas, Cas glances down at the menu.

"Uhh, Shiner Bock and Chicken Fried Steak." Jo and Dean both stare at him, "what?" Dean smiles and glances at Jo.

"My usual," he says before turning back to Cas, "so tell me about your brothers." Cas looks up at him.

"My two eldest brothers are both surgeons, Zachariah is the chief surgeon at Falls ER, and Michael is a surgeon over in Africa. He is over there saving lives and donating all his time and money. Zachariah is the oldest, he is 41, Michael is 35. Gabe is an artist and has always been different, he sees the world differently. He is 27," here Cas trails off wondering how to explain Gabe to someone who has met him. Jo comes over and places beer down in front of them both. Dean and Cas both smile and thank her.

"How old are you?" Dean asks.

"23, you?"

"26, Sam is 22. I love Shiner Bock, I'm glad Ellen brings it up here since it goes along with the southern theme." He takes a drink of beer and and closes his eyes with joy. Cas watches him with amusement and takes a drink, it's good, he is amazed he takes another drink and looks up at Dean who is watching him. "You just picked that one cause it was the top one didn't you?" Cas nods, and Dean smirks. "It's my favorite has been since the first time I tried it when i was 12, Ellen wasn't amused that I had snuck in here with some buddies of mine and got caught drunk by the police." Here Dean grins, "I thought Bobby was going to tan my hide. I have never been in so much trouble as when Jody (she's the sheriff, Jody Mills) brought me up to the door by my ear and told them that I had stolen the keys to the Bar and had brought people in. We broke a couple bar stools and the guys had broken a tap. I and the kids thought I was a goner, but Ellen and Bobby sent me to my room. Bobby woke me up at 4 the next morning and made me work in the garage for several hours until I was certain my head was going to explode. Bobby sent me back into the house and gave me tylenol. I slept a couple more hours then once my hangover was finally gone I came here and helped clean up; Actually i did all the cleaning Ellen watched. That night after Sam and Jo were put to bed they called me into the living room. They told me that they were disappointed with me and that I had been disrespectful, I had lost their trust and I could no longer watch my brother or sister alone. We were going to start having a BABYSITTER, I had hoped for a teenage girl that night when they were going out but instead we got Mrs. Lovett. She use to babysit for Bobby when he was a kid, it was a nightmare, she was with us every night that week. That was the best punishment they could have thought of; I rarely acted up after that." The food arrives and Dean and Cas spend the rest of the meal eating and giving vague commentary. Jo drops the check on the table and wanders away, " She is not a good waitress." Dean says with a sigh.

"You said 'the usual' when you ordered. Did I order pick your usual meal here?" Cas asks, Dean stands up and drops money on the table. He grins at Cas.

"As a matter of fact you did, I order that every time I eat here. Chicken fried steak is my favorite food," at that Dean smirks. "Good thing I work out so much," he winks at Cas. "Do you want to play pool?"

"I don't know how, never learned." Cas shakes his head, "Also I have to work in a few hours, I need to get home and finish laundry." Dean nods and heads toward the door glancing over his shoulder to see if Cas is following him. Cas heads for the bar making a beeline for Ellen. "Ellen," she starts at the sound of his deep voice and puts down the bottle of Vodka she was holding to face him. "That was amazing, thank you. I've never had Southern style food." He reaches a hand to her and she smiles and shakes his hand. Dean comes over and kisses her cheek.

"Glad you liked it, tell your friends," she smirks at him and Cas can see where Dean and Jo get that look from. "Did you tip your sister?" She asks Dean as Jo breezes by with a water pitcher. Dean nods, "Did you tip her well?"

"We never saw her except to get drinks and food! I never got the water I asked her for twice when she walked past us. I came up here and got it myself!" Ellen raises a brow and Dean sighs and rummages in his pocket for extra cash, he fishes a five out of the crumpled handfuls of bills and holds it up to show Ellen. "Happy now?" Jo walked by and plucks it from his hand.

"Thank you!" She says as she waltzes past with a tray of food this time. "Bye Castiel." She disappears back into the din. Dean stares after her shaking his head. Cas hides a smile, and Ellen smiles at her son.

"Yes I am," she kisses Dean. "Now git," She turns and returns to her customers.

"Let’s go before my sister decides she still isn't happy." Dean ushers Cas out the door and to his car. He leans against his car and Cas moves to his door unlocking the Lincoln; Cas turns and face Dean.

"Thanks for dinner, this place was great, I've never had Southern food before." Cas stares at Dean a moment gathering his courage. "Next time I'll buy, do you like Thai?" Dean raises a brow and smirks.

"I've never had it before, but I'm happy to try anything, I do love food." Dean pats his stomach, Cas' eyes follow Dean's hand then he rolls his eyes.  
You're all muscle, Wednesday?" Dean still smirking nods. Cas turns to his car to open the door when suddenly Dean's hand closes over his on the handle. He holds the door open for Cas and Cas turns his head slightly to glance at Dean who is again staring at him. Dean leans close to Cas and he can feel his breath catch as he leans is as well and then they jump apart as shouting echos across the silent night. They both watch the rowdy men go back into the bar and Cas jerks his hand away and practically dives in his car. Dean slips around the door and leans in the car.

"I'll text you later, see you on Wednesday." With that Dean closes Cas' car door and saunters to his car. Cas watches Dean drive away; he shakes his head and drives home.

 

 

Over the course of the next few month Dean and Cas see each other as often as their respective schedules will allow, Dean brings Cas his favorite coffee on his way home from work, even though Dean says it’s on the way neither mention the lie. They go to dinner several times frequently trying new resturants (Dean is not a fan of Thai but he is especially a fan of comfort food.) When Cas finds a cafe that serves only dessert Dean insist that they get dessert from there every time and he starts making his way through the pie menu. Cas comes to the garage a few times to bring Dean pie and Dean crosses each piece off of the menu that Cas had got him so he knew what he had and hadn't eaten. Each time Cas goes to the garage Dean is the only person in the back, Charlie is frequently running the counter and when Cas mentions it to Dean, Dean tells him that Charlie's parents sent her to a doctor to have them rid her of her gayness, when that didn't work they tried beating it out of her. Sheriff Mills had removed her from her house when Ellen and Bobby heard about it they had already decided to take in a foster kid or two since they had extra space so they reach out to Jody and Charlie offering her a room until she decided what she wanted to do. That had been three years ago and like Jo she was graduating in June only two months away. Cas can't help but feel for Charlie, he had seen the way his brothers reacted to Gabe when he had been caught as a teenager with a boy in his room, he had been on the street that night with a black eye. Cas takes to bringing extra dessert to the garage when he come after that, Charlie is always delighted to get cookies, brownies, cheesecake, cake, pie or whatever the specialty is. Dean tries a few more times to kiss him over the past few months but they are always interrupted.They never talk about the almost kisses. Dean talks to Cas about what he wants to give each girl for graduation and Cas nixes a few ideas 'neither girl likes or wears jewerly Dean' finally Dean asks Cas if he wants to come in on a joint gift and after much discussion decided that Charlie should get tickets to New York Comicon and Jo was getting a couple plane ticket vouchers to NYC where she had always wanted to go. Finally graduation day rolls around.

 

"Are you ready to go? We still have to get your crazy brother, Sam and Jess. That shirt with the blue tie was fine!" Dean keeps trying to rush Cas but Cas panics, this will be his first time seeing the whole Winchester-Singer-Harville together. Bobby had been in Seattle for the past few months taking care of his mother and while Dean and Cas were not dating per say Cas was still extremely nervous. "CAS! Move your ass! Mom will kill me if we are late and I'd hate to ruin this perfect body." Cas can only imagine what Dean is doing,he glances at his reflection one last time and darts out his bathroom. Dean is sprawled across his bed staring at the ceiling, he looks over and smiles at at Cas. "Looking good Angel, lets go." With that Dean jumps off Cas' bed and grabbing his hand they rush out.

Cas watches all the seniors throw their caps in the air, he can see Charlie's with the Black Widow symbol from their vantage point. Still looking he can see the Hawkeye symbol on Jo's, that had not been as hard as Charlie or anyone had thought to get Jo to agree to partner symbols on her cap. Charlie and Jo had spent two weeks quoting The Avengers movies and making everyone crazy. Ellen and Bobby had both discretely cried when each girl had walked and Sam and even Dean looked misty-eyed. Gabe grins at his brother before grabbing the hand of Sam's blonde girlfriend Jess.

"Don't cry Jess, you'll ruin your makeup. Cas has some tissues." Cas hands them over and listens to them talk as he glances around the crowd. He sees the sheriff in the crowd and can see Dean's friend Crowley eying Gabe, when Gabe feels eyes on him he turns and catches Crowley's eye. Gabe winks suggestively at him and Crowley reddens and turns back to his brother who had graduated with the girls. Cas can see him turning around and glancing at Gabe curiously.

"I really hope that Gabe isn't checking out Crowley," Dean suddenly breathes in Cas' ear. Cas shivers at Dean's breathe against his ear and throat, he knows Dean is smirking. Cas turns slightly to Dean so they are close but not touching.

"I think Gabe would be great with Crowley and vice versa. Both are wild playboy's, it would be perfect. Maybe they could tame each other." Dean opens his mouth to respond Charlie calls his name. Both men look over at her and despite not knowing them Cas realizes that those people standing nearly on top of Charlie are her parents. Dean rushes over and beats Bobby and Sam there by seconds.

"What are you doing here? You have to have to be invited!" Dean says sharply, Ellen and Jo make their way into the fray and Cas, Gabe, and Jess stand on the outskirts there to help if it is needed.

"This is for the graduates and who they invite," Ellen says, Cas can hear the anger in her voice. Mr. Bradbury's grip on Charlie's arm tightens.

"Charlie is our child and despite her misgivings, flaws, and _problems_ she still managed to graduate. So we came to congratulate her." He says coolly, her mother nods along with his words.

"Her _problems_??"Bobby say furiously, "she is a great kid. Smart as a whip nothing is wrong with her, she's damn near perfect. Only problem she has is you. Time for y'all to leave." Bobby had moved forward with every word and now stood toe to toe with the man. Mr.Bradbury stares at Bobby before roughly shoving her into Bobby.

"Bunch of fag lovers. Bet they are all queer. They are all fags, let’s go." He says to his wife still calling them names as he drags her with him. He meets Cas' eyes and snaps at him. " What are you staring at faggot?" Cas without thinking reaches out and punches him in the face. He hears several people gasp and can see Jody making a beeline over to them.

"I punched him in the face," he tells her offering her his wrists. Jody looks at him with surprise then turns to the Bradbury's .

"What are you two doing here? Do either of you remember the restraining order?" She turns to look at Charlie and the rest of her family. "Do you want to press charges?"

"He struck me, Sheriff! I want him arrested." Mr. Bradbury insists. Jody glances down at him.

"I can arrest you for coming here and breaking the restraining order and from the way Charlie is rubbing her arm I can arrest you for abuse and public disorderly conduct. You still want to go there, Rob?" Mr. Bradbury shakes his head and grabs his wife's hand and rushes away. "Good swing, I've always wanted to punch him in the face." Jody pats him on the shoulder and walks away. Cas turns to face the others with an apology on his lips. Charlie throws her arms around him.

"Thanks for doing that." She says into his neck, he hugs her back tightly and glances at his brother who nods solemnly then smiles widely. Charlie releases him and turns to Jo who also hugs Cas before the two girls disappear back into the fray. Dean stares at Cas impressed and Ellen reaches out and gives him a hug as well.

"Thank you, she says simply before taking Bobby's hand and moving off to their car to finish the preparations for the party tonight. Bobby clamps him on the shoulder and follows his wife. Dean and Sam both keep staring at him, Cas fidgets under their gazes.

"Sorry I did that, he was just making me so angry and I just..." Cas doesn't know how to finish but neither man needs an explanation. They know about Gabe. Dean and Sam exchange a look and Sam moves to Jess and Gabe melts away. Dean grabs Cas' arm and leads him to under the bleachers.

"You okay?" Dean asks, "seriously? I know you've been holding that anger in for a long time." Cas nods and Dean reaches a hand out to Cas. Cas glances at the hand on his arm and steps into Dean's chest resting his head on Dean's shoulder. Dean stiffens for a moment before wrapping both arms around Cas. Cas can feel all the anger evaporating from him, nothing is more comforting than the arms of a loved one. Eventually Cas releases his hold on Dean and steps back. Before he can change his mind he steps forward again and kisses Dean, he can feel Dean's surprise again before he kisses back. They stay under the bleachers kissing for several minutes before Dean's phone rings. It’s Sam telling them to hurry up so they can go! They exit the bleachers and ignoring the smirks on their brothers faces they head to The Roadhouse. Everyone assists with the last touches as people start pouring in, people eat and drink and party. Cas can feel Dean's eyes on him and smiles at him every so often. Cas watches as Gabe meets up with Crowley and watches them talk for a while then watches with amusement as they sneak off.

"I can only imagine what they are going to go do," Charlie says as she appears next to him to watch them sneak off. Dean slides over to them hooking an arm around each of their waists. Cas smiles at him and Charlie smiles up at Dean then smirks at Cas. A girl pops up next to Charlie.

"Sarah!" Charlie greets her, " this is Dean and his boyfriend Cas." Sarah smiles at them.

"Hi, nice to meet you both, Charlie talks about you all the time. How'd you meet though?" She asks in one breathe.

"His brother punched me in the face, actually." Dean says with amusement. Sarah looks startled and Charlie laughs.

"It was an accident!" Cas exclaims, this only makes Charlie laugh harder and Dean snickers. Sarah smiles at Cas.

"That's some way to meet new people," she says, Cas can't help but chortle at her words.

"Sam, Dean's brother, said the exact same thing." Sarah laughs at that and the four of them snicker at the word choice. They hear shouting and look up to see Bobby chasing Gabe and Crowley out of the kitchen. People laugh, they can only imagine what Bobby had seen. Cas feels Dean touching his hand he looks down to see Dean lace their fingers together. Cas smiles at Dean and they watch his brother and Crowley approach them sheepishly. Cas could get use to this life.


End file.
